Simple
by Purple Handprint
Summary: Nico Robin only planned on using the Straw Hat Pirates as a means of protection. Once she suspected anything, she would leave. Simple.
1. Chapter 1

Nico Robin only planned on using the Straw Hat Pirates as a means of protection. When the boy had scooped her out of suicide, the broken archaeologist had nowhere to go. So, she decided to join yet another band of criminals. It was her usual method of dealing with these kinds of situations. Betrayal was inevitable; past experiences have taught her that. However, Robin simply shrugged it off. She was used to it by this time, and she knew how to handle it. Once she suspected anything, she would leave.

Simple.


	2. Chapter 2

She snuck into their ship the night before their departure. It was easier than she expected. While everyone celebrated their triumphant victory in the kingdom's palace, Robin openly walked inside the lone ship bobbing on the gentle waters, a small pack of belongings in her hands. After a bit of exploration, she found a distinctively female bedroom and slipped her aching body into a pair of clean clothing she had found inside, buttoned up modestly to hide the dark, unhealed scar that marred the center of her chest.

Her eyes lingered on the small bed situated in a corner of the room, opposite a desk scattered with cartographic tools. Stifling a yawn, she walked over and drew the blankets over her, resting her head against a soft pillow.

It took a few hours of silence, but eventually, Robin's habitually tense body succumbed to drowsiness, though never relaxing as it laid rigidly atop the vaguely citrus-scented sheets.


	3. Chapter 3

She awoke to a faint rocking. Her eyes flew open in alarm, instinctively scanning the room for any sign of a threat, only to be met by the sight of an unfamiliar room. Robin blinked in question, before quickly realizing her current location. Anguished cries pierced through the wooden walls, accompanied by urgent yells of communication between comrades. The tremors grew increasingly violent and the screams, louder. Robin stayed seated at the edge of her bed, choosing to wait patiently for the noise to stop, unconcerned of the commotion outside.

Suddenly, a feminine voice echoed out to the sea. Recognizing it as belonging to "Miss Wednesday," Robin listened with mild interest as the young princess's voice relayed her gratitude for the heroes over a crackling speaker. This ragtag team of pirates had, evidently, made quite an impact on the girl. She listened as Princess Nefertari Vivi regretfully declined their request to join the pirate crew. (Robin noted that this would make things considerably easier for her.) And she listened as the Alabastan finally asked, a choked sob briefly hitching her voice, whether or not the members on deck would still call her their nakama if they were to ever meet again.

She heard the beginning of an interrupted response from the captain, followed by a hushed scolding. Hearing nothing else afterward, Robin's curiosity prompted her to discreetly sprout an eye outside.

The crew was standing side by side on the deck with their left arms raised, sleeves lowered to reveal a neatly-drawn "X" on the back of each of their wrists, silent as cannonballs whizzed by and blasted the water around them. As an outsider, Robin didn't understand the gesture, but she did notice that it was rather significant to the Alabastan royalty, whose soft, relieved laugh rang out in response. Robin watched as Princess Vivi and her pet duck raised their arms in a similar fashion, tears streaking their faces as they waved goodbye.

"Well, that was touching," Robin remarked to herself, her voice dry. Inwardly, she laughed cynically at Princess Vivi's optimism. The poor girl was going to be disappointed.

A short while later, the fierce quaking of battle subsided, and a calm swaying took its place. Hearing the murmurs of conversation, the stowaway opened the door and stepped out.


	4. Chapter 4

It was strange how easily the crew had welcomed her. Robin had expected more of a fight, perhaps even some violence. She was fully prepared to bend some spines. Instead, she managed to charm, humor, and bribe her way into acceptance.

She had learned of a few quirks in their personality and decided to take advantage of them. Although she knew that information would help, Robin hadn't seriously believed that a few jewels and some childish antics would sway them into forgiving her role in ruining their dear friend's life.

...But they did.


	5. Chapter 5

What surprised her most, though, was the captain's response to his crew mates' initial reluctance.

While his comrades yelled (or, in the case of one hormonally-charged male member, swooned) at his rashness, the captain flashed a cheeky grin and simply replied, "She's not a bad person."

His quick dismissal of their opinions astonished her. How could someone who had spent the past few weeks fighting against her say something like that with such certainty? Robin chalked it up to the fact that she had saved his life, twice. He was simply repaying the favor by allowing her to stay, she reasoned. Even so, his personality intrigued her.

Her mind couldn't help but wander back into her childhood, of the gentle giant that had befriended her. The only reason she saved the boy was because he reminded her of the other D. carrier in her life. The one who went to great lengths just to protect his friend. The one who refused to give up even as the odds stacked up against him. The one that stubbornly fought to the very end.

The similarities had sparked some sentimentality inside her and caused her to lend a hand to a complete stranger.

It was the right choice, she supposed. She had planned on betraying Sir Crocodile all along, anyway, and if she hadn't decided to act on her whim, the archaeologist would be buried under rubble, slowly dying without the wish to live.

Robin still didn't have that desire, but she wasn't going to actively try and take her own life. If she was left dying again, alone with shattered dreams, then so be it. Robin had grown tired of her long string of failures, her roads of dead ends and blocks of forgotten history.

But who was she to deny the will of a man like Monkey D. Luffy? She'd humor him. She'd continue living.


	6. Chapter 6

"Is it always this loud?"

"Yeah... This is it."

The swordsman was still hostile, but Robin didn't mind. Suspicion was fine. She had lived most of her life as someone whose cohorts regarded warily.

And with good reason, as the woman, herself, acknowledged her lack of loyalty to those she cooperated with. Loyalty and trust were qualities that led to disappointment. Robin had long learned to detach herself from others around her. Five years, ten years, twenty years from now, these people would only be hazy, anonymous faces in her distant memory.

Robin thought it was better that way.


	7. Chapter 7

Soon afterward, Robin had her first adventure with her newfound companions.

It began with the the navigator's confusion as her Log Pose pointed upward, its needle quivering toward the slowly shifting clouds above. Robin suggested the idea of islands in the sky, to which her gleeful captain responded with boyish enthusiasm.

After a few shenanigans involving a giant turtle and treasure hunters, the ship docked at Jaya in search for information about their next destination.

Robin had stolen an Eternal Pose to the island, beforehand, earning her a generous profession of thanks from the navigator.

"You're the only one I can depend on!" she had exclaimed, eyes twinkling in admiration.

And to think, only days ago, the girl had hated her.


	8. Chapter 8

Robin was only doing her duty as part of the crew. Judging from the hot-tempered navigator's reaction, though, she assumed that no one else ever did the same.

What a strange motley of characters, she thought. Their teamwork was what had made the Straw Hat Pirates such a formidable opponent, able to charge ahead through their obstacles in Alabasta. But here they were, lazily ambling their way through the sea without any visible cohesion. It was a deeper kind of teamwork, Robin figured, as she watched them interact. A type of bond based on mutual reliance and deeply-rooted trust, coupled with the ability to thoroughly comprehend one another.

It was something Robin couldn't understand.


	9. Chapter 9

A brief bar scuffle later, Robin gained valuable information of sky islands. Satisfied with what she had learned, she headed back, stopping short when she heard herself being discussed by the other crew members.

"She's probably left us already," Robin heard the swordsman say, his voice rife with distrust.

The woman in question brought her lips to a closed expression of neutrality, holding back the wry smirk that threatened to show through.

_Not yet_, she thought as she stepped onto the deck, fingers curled around a roll of aged map paper. Not yet.


	10. Chapter 10

After a few meetings with several interesting people, Robin found herself in a forest with her crew, again contributing by catching a south bird necessary for their trip.

Later, she watched her captain run off in anger, vowing to bring down the people who dared to hinder the dreams of his newfound friends.

It was so unlike the stereotypes typically associated with a pirate captain.

Then again, saving an entire country from a diabolical organization was also something most people wouldn't believe pirates to be morally capable of. Defeating a Shichibukai? A feat no rookie pirate could be expected to accomplish.

And traveling to sky islands was definitely something most people couldn't believe _anyone_ could do.

But here they were—here _she_ was—standing on a cloud floating far above the earth, not long after they had saved Alabasta from the hands of Sir Crocodile of the Shichibukai.

The Straw Hat Pirates truly were a remarkable group of people.


	11. Chapter 11

"You," the group proclaimed in unison, aiming their weapons at the self-proclaimed god.

Robin's vision was suddenly interrupted by a blinding flash of white light. She felt her body become loose, toppling towards the ground.

As she fell, Robin was barely aware of the pain scorching her body, her mind too preoccupied with her actions beforehand to really notice.

_Why did I do that?_

(She had joined their fight against Enel, answering, "You" in unison with the others after the self-proclaimed god asked for the next victim.)

There was no need to help them. She could have simply manipulated Enel into thinking she was allied with him. In fact, it would have been safer to join him, leaving the Straw Hats for another companion. She had done it before. It wouldn't have been any different.

And yet, it was. Robin had spent very little time with these people, but... they already seemed to genuinely care about her.

Of course, seeming to care and actually caring were two different things. She remembered her first caretaker, an old woman who affectionately patted Robin's head and praised her good behavior only to later turn her in to the Marines. Robin had been deceived too many times before, back when she was first starting out as a fugitive, before she had hardened into the cold woman she was today.

It seemed that once again, she had managed to delude herself into thinking that people actually liked her. Robin mentally chastisted herself for being so foolish. She knew better than that. She wasn't the same naïve child who sought companionship, trusting the words and actions of people as if everything they said was true, everything thing they did: unwavering.

And as she felt the strong arms of the swordsman—the one who had previously held nothing but suspicion for her—catch her, anger lacing his voice as he growled at her attacker, Robin kept reminding herself of one simple fact:

No matter how much they seemed to care about her now, eventually they would all turn their backs on her.


	12. Chapter 12

Another Poneglyph.

Robin had found the reason to live again.


	13. Chapter 13

"Hey, Robin! Why don't you join us?" Luffy laughed, the caramel-colored liquid sloshing and spilling out of his mug as he waved his arm around. "It's a party! You should be celebrating!"

Robin smiled politely and shook her head. "No thanks, Captain-san. I'm fine here."

"But it's boring just sitting there!" Luffy whined, pouting in disapproval.

"I like talking to Gan Fall-san," Robin assured and gestured toward the bearded man. "He's good company."

"Ah, okay," Luffy accepted with a grin. "But come join us when you're done, okay?"

"Sure," said Robin, smiling once more.

Satisfied, Luffy went back to partying, dancing with the wolves around the bonfire.

Robin couldn't help but laugh as everyone enjoyed themselves, drunk and happy.

With a start, Robin realized that she, too, was enjoying herself.

She immediately stopped laughing.


	14. Chapter 14

"Thank you, Chop—" Robin paused abruptly but quickly continued, correcting herself. "Doctor-san."

She feigned a smile and numbly nodded her head to the reindeer's fervent warnings and advice, waiting until he left before letting out a pained sigh.

Robin was disappointed in herself. She had almost let a name slip out of the carefully-worded speech that usually came out of her lips. Robin didn't call people by names. She used titles, impersonal titles one used to refer to a stranger whose name they didn't know.

Despite that, she had almost uttered the name of a crew member in casual conversation.

Frowning, Robin realized that she was starting to grow attached to the Straw Hat Pirates.


	15. Chapter 15

Sometimes, Robin accidentally let her true self show, her mask slipping off as real smiles overrode the fake, polite ones she wore before.

Sometimes, Robin laughed, amused by her crew's oddity and at how their personalities contrasted one another. She laughed at their silly interactions, and she laughed at their enthusiastic pursuit for adventure. And sometimes, she laughed for no reason other than that she felt like it.

Sometimes, Robin indulged herself in the presence of her crewmates, accompanying them on their trips to places or involving herself in some of their activities. She would go shopping with the navigator or play a board game with the doctor. She would tease the swordsman and flirt with the cook, listen to the long-nosed boy's stories or laugh with the captain.

Eventually, those sometimeses became oftens, and those oftens became alwayses until Robin couldn't hold herself back, until it all became natural to her. Robin knew she shouldn't be doing any of it, but she ignored her own warnings and continued being herself, her _real_ self.

Robin let herself be happy, and although she knew it was wrong for her to do so, she couldn't help but fall in love with her crew.


	16. Chapter 16

"Robin, why don't you ever call us by our names?"

It was a random thought that had sprung up while Nami was lying in bed, feet away from where her companion sat, perusing through a thin but arduous book.

Robin glanced up from the tiny text of the page she was reading. "Why? Does it bother you?"

"I don't know, kind of..." Nami continued hesitantly, "You're our nakama, but it just seems like... you don't really, you know... consider us yours."

Nakama? In what context? Robin assumed the navigator referred to the relationship that the rest of the crew members shared.

It certainly wasn't something that applied to her. The strong bond between everyone else was unwavering, unlike their relationship with Robin, whom they would inevitably later view as a burden. No, she and the Straw Hat Pirates were not that kind of nakama, even if the navigator earnestly seemed to believe so. It was a realization the girl would gradually come to, soon enough.

Noticing the said navigator waiting for her to speak, Robin finally replied, "Why do you say that?"

"You call us by our titles," Nami explained. "They're just, well.. impersonal."

"What if I told you they were just terms of endearment?" Robin suggested.

"They are?"

Robin nodded slowly, hoping the navigator wouldn't notice her lies.

At Robin's confirmation, Nami visibly brightened.

"I'm sorry; I know it's a really stupid thing to say." She tittered. "I mean, _of_ _course_ we're your nakama."

"Yes," was all her crew mate said in response.

Nami caught the hollow tone in the older woman's reply and the distant look that flashed in her eyes. But then Robin blinked, and the look was gone, replaced by the vaguely amused expression she always wore.

"Yes, of course," Robin repeated smoothly, smiling that _fake_ smile Nami hadn't seen in such a long time.

Nami frowned but said nothing.

_Of course we're her nakama_, Nami assured herself, trying to ignore her creeping unease. _Of course we are._

* * *

**A/N: This is a fic that has been sitting on my computer for a long time now. It's since been abandoned. I never had a definite plan on when I would end it, and upon reading this, I figured this chapter (the last one I wrote) could serve as a decent ending. So here it is, I hope you enjoyed it even if it is only half-finished.**

**Oh, and regarding the use of a bunch of chapters instead of as a single one-shot: I just felt like it flowed better as individual chapters rather than using line breaks.**


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